The television has been around for more than 60 years, and there aren’t many homes across the UK without one. Today the TV is a lot more than a story telling and entertainment device; with smart technology feature this piece of technology is wonderfully interactive. Here at 123 Brackets we are passionate about the evolution of the television, so in order to celebrate its magnificence here is a brief history of the marvellous colour TV.

Born in the 1950′s

To many people a colour TV is an essential part of the home and they have known nothing else throughout their life however, the invention of this device is actually relatively recent. The colour television was introduced onto the market in the US in 1953, but it wasn’t until the mid to late 1960s that colour televisions actually began to grow in popularity and become a common feature in people’s homes.

Europe and Colour Broadcasts

Unfortunately for the UK and the rest of Europe, colour was not standardised until the 1960′s and the first completely colour broadcast was not seen until 1967.  American TV featured a colour encoding system called NTSC, but Europe was displeased with the quality and performance of this so subsequently PAL was invented in Germany (Phase Alternating Line) – this was the system used by the majority of Europe. In the UK the first colour programme to be broadcast was on BBC2, however black and white programmes were still seen. By the late 1970s and early 1980s all TV programmes were in colour and the black and white TV set inevitably became a thing of the past.

Visual Transformation

The appearance of the TV has transformed phenomenally from its first emergence on the market, and not only on screen from monochrome to colour, the actual appearance of the TV has transformed. The first screen was small yet the box was chunky, large and wooden with an array of quirky looking dials. From the late 1980′s up to the early 2000′s the shape and style of the television remained large and bulky, yet with a plastic exterior – many people depended on TV tables and stands that took up an awful lot of space. It wasn’t until around 2005 that flat screen television sets began to become the norm allowing for a much more attractive viewing. Television sets not longer have to be set on stands on the floor; you can now mount them to the wall or ceiling by using ceiling TV brackets.

Today’s choices

In the modern world you can enjoy HD, blu-ray DVDS and even 3D effects in the comfort of your very own home. The options available to customers now are incredible you can choose from plasma and LCD screens in a range of sizes. It’s amazing to see how far technology has come on in such a relatively small amount of time. Here at 123 Brackets we are incredibly excited to see what comes next.

It has been revealed that EastEnders came out on top in the ratings ware for Christmas Day this year. Remarkably, this is the third year in a row that this has happened.

Overnight figures showed that 10.2 million viewers tuned in to the BBC soap at its peak, while Coronation Street and ITV had to settle for an audience of 9.9 million. The average for the former was 9.9 million with the latter drawing in 9.3 million.

The BBC’s George Entwistle, commenting on the figures, said:

“The breadth and quality of the BBC’s output has been really impressive across all genres and today’s figures are testament to that.”

However, despite the strong showing from the BBC, overall, ITV still managed to hold a strong position, with the Christmas special of Downton Abbey following the top two, with fourth place going to Doctor Who on BBC One.

Other programmes watched by British viewers on Christmas Day included The Queen’s Speech, Strictly Come Dancing and the return of 90s hit Absolutely Fabulous. ITV also had Emmerdale and All Star Family Fortunes to fall back on too.

Most of these popular TV shows will have been watched on flat screen televisions mounted onto the wall using TV brackets. These popular accessories ensure that viewers can get the most from their TV sets.

At Christmas-time, when TV viewing is at its peak, these wall mounts are great at letting the whole family see the screen and enjoy the day of top entertainment. If you don’t have them, you can order them online today.

It has been reported that the much-anticipated Apple television, which is due out at some point during the next year, is to be offered in both 32 and 37-inch screens.

The Washington Post has revealed that the “iTV” sets will be available between the second and third quarters of 2012.

Digitimes has claimed that “The displays of the new iTV sets will focus on 32- and 37-inch sizes initially, noted sources in the supply chain.”

Whenever Apple announces a new piece of gadgetry the world sits up and takes notice. This is bound to be no different with consumers eager to find out all the features and technological wizardry installed in these devices.

If this news is indeed true then it is certainly good news for those who like to mount their TVs on the wall using TV brackets. They will be pleased to find out that these two standard sizes have been chosen by Apple for the flagship machines.

What is not clear at this point is the naming of the television as iTV in the UK sounds the same as the broadcaster ITV, so it remains to be seen whether these reports have got inside information in this regard.

No matter what the Apple TV is finally called, what is expected of the device is Siri voice activated control to do such things as change channels, similar to the service enjoyed by iPhone 4S users.

Larger sets are bound to follow in due course, to appease the demands of home cinema consumers.

Over the course of the last 12 months, it is estimated that around 100,000 Canadian homes have cancelled cable TV subscriptions. Does this reflect an overall reduction in desire to watch TV?

Not really. As well as still having access to free-to-air TV, these people are generally turning to online content in place of cable channels. Sales of TVs and TV brackets remain strong because people are still watching; they’re just getting their video content from elsewhere.

It’s also true that overall numbers of cable viewers remain strong. There are around 11.7m cable TV subscribers in Canada, so 100,000 cancellations represents less than one per cent.

All the same, with TV programmes and films available from an increasing number of online outlets, such as Netflix and Hulu, this could be a growing trend. Here in the UK, the BBC’s iPlayer is commanding an ever-greater proportion of the nation’s total viewing time and that’s hardly surprising when you think about it.

Internet TV has few drawbacks. Where once it was low quality – both in terms of the content and the picture – now you can easily get professionally made programming in high definition. Furthermore, you can watch it whenever you want. We are no longer bound by the TV schedules. If we hear from a friend or colleague that a particular programme is worth watching, we can simply find the series online and watch it from the start. We can watch multiple episodes in a night, pausing whenever we want.

TV viewing has been largely unaffected by the increasing availability of online TV. People like to sit comfortably if they’re watching TV for any length of time, so they favour the settee and a screen mounted on TV brackets over a laptop or similar device. However, now that internet TV is often accessible via the TV, overall viewing could actually increase.

A recent report has found that here in the UK, online viewing is proving more popular than in other major countries. The Ofcom report found that 27 per cent of UK internet users watched online TV each week, compared to 24 per cent in 2010. This was a higher proportion than in any other country surveyed. Services such as the BBC’s iPlayer have helped drive this.

The UK also saw significant growth in the use of digital video recorders. Over a third of homes now have one and only in the US do a greater proportion of the population make use of one.

TV viewing has therefore increased. The average Briton watches TV for slightly over four hours a day, about 31 minutes more than the average across the various countries surveyed.

We can expect this trend to continue with high speed broadband services becoming more common and thus allowing more people to stream TV programmes via the internet. It would seem that this is the future of television, with users finding different ways of watching programmes at a time that suits them, rather than watching them when they are broadcast.

A recent study into US media habits has found that Americans watch 4h34m of TV a day, on average. This is a 10 minute increase on last year, perhaps reflecting the fact that the figures include all TV viewing, including via internet services, such as Netflix.

Internet TV is perhaps the biggest growth area in TV viewing. More and more people now have access to on-demand services on their normal TV set, meaning they can watch in comfort on a screen properly mounted on TV brackets rather than turning to their laptops or desktop PCs. This offers huge flexibility in the way we watch TV and people are adopting the new technology with enthusiasm.

There are now many different ways of accessing online video content on a conventional TV. It can be integrated into cable TV services or played via games consoles, such as Microsoft’s Xbox, which recently released an update to its Xbox-Live service which provides a more comprehensive TV offering.

One of the easiest ways of getting internet TV on your main screen is simply to plug your laptop into it and use it as a projector. Most laptops will automatically detect the screen if there is a connection. You can then play AVI files or the iPlayer or an equivalent and watch whatever you want. YouTube now has a number of channels featuring longer, professionally made programmes, so this is another good source of entertainment.

An annual survey examining US TV habits has revealed that Republicans and Democrats have distinct TV watching habits. As a Brit, it’s interesting to see whether your taste in US programmes hints at your political allegiance.

Apparently, Republicans steer clear of Jersey Shore and instead prefer the drama series, Castle. Democrats aren’t fond of Deadliest Catch, but many of them love the sitcom Parks and Recreation.

In general, those who identified themselves as being Democrats preferred sharp, media-savvy sitcoms and drama series with morally ambiguous main characters. Those who said they were Republicans were more fond of workplace drama and reality TV.

Other liberal favourites include Jon Stewart’s Daily Show and the Colbert Report, which is hardly surprising, as they are more overtly political than most programmes. 30 Rock was also popular, as was Modern Family. In terms of drama, Treme, from the writers of The Wire, scored highly.

Republicans watched a whole raft of programmes on the History Channel, as well as other factual programmes, such as Swamp Loggers, Top Shot and Mythbusters. For lighter fare, they preferred The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

The lowest-ranked programme for right-wing viewers was Weeds, which again is hardly surprising. It portrays a widowed mother who sells marijuana. Liberals choose to steer well clear of conservatives’ top-rated programme, Swamp Loggers, which seems to be the most divisive programme on air at the moment.

However, whatever people are watching, they are using the same technology. You still need a good quality TV mounted on TV brackets to get the most out of the entertainment that is on offer.

Manchester United fans will have been expecting to stick with ITV for the club’s remaining European fixtures this season, but instead they will have to tune into Channel 5. United’s shock Champions League exit means they will be plying their trade on Thursday nights in the much-maligned Europa League from now on. At least there’s no need to change your TV brackets. Some things have a bit more resilience about them. A good TV bracket can be relied upon.

Rio Ferdinand isn’t delighted about the prospect of showing up for Europa League fixtures. Speaking about the club’s astonishing to defeat to lowly Basle, he said:

“European nights under the lights at Old Trafford with the Champions League music coming on is what you live for. We have gone out early and we cannot look at anyone but ourselves.”

Bad news for United is however good news for Channel 5, who are expecting a £13m windfall resulting from having more appealing matches to show. The channel averaged around 1.4m viewers for last season’s fixtures, but could expect closer to 4m for matches featuring United or their now seemingly dominant rivals, Manchester City.

Channel 5 offered ‘a warm welcome to Manchester United’ within minutes of the Basle defeat, much to some fans’ consternation. Nick Bampton, commercial sales director at the channel added:

“Manchester might not be happy but Channel 5 are delighted. We get the two best teams in England entertaining our audiences for free, which in turn delivers mass audiences for our advertising partners.”

Virgin Media have recently announced that Sky Anytime will now be available via its cable TV service. This means that if you have a Virgin TV package, you may be able to access a wider selection of on-demand programming.

The TV schedules are becoming less and less relevant these days. People want to watch programmes at times that are convenient to them. This is sometimes achieved via a digital video recorder but it is increasingly common to rely on catch-up and on-demand services.

Virgin already offers a number of on-demand services via its cable service. This is great for customers, because whereas many similar offerings are only accessible via a computer, with Virgin, you can get it all through your TV. There’s a reason why we pay for huge TVs, hanging them on TV brackets in pride of place in our living rooms and it’s because they offer the optimum viewing experience.

The Anytime service will work in the same way as the iPlayer and other equivalents, but will offer Sky’s own TV programmes, broadening what is on offer. Viewers will be able to catch up with series such as An Idiot Abroad, Mad Dogs and Martina Cole’s The Take.

In addition to this, anyone subscribing to the Sky Movies Collection will have access to more films. In all, there will be hundreds of hours of programming available and what is available will change week by week.

BSkyB have announced that they are to launch a new Formula One HD TV channel. They are hoping that this development will encourage more people to sign up for their HD service.

This is an unusual move. Sky has never before had a channel dedicated to just one sport, but having secured the broadcasting rights to Formula One earlier in the year – along with the BBC – it is clearly going all-out to make the most of them.

The new channel will be available for nine months – the entirety of the F1 season – and anyone who subscribes to Sky Sports 1 and 2 will have access, as will anyone who subscribes to its HD service. A standard definition version of the channel will also be available.

The channel will broadcast live coverage of every race, as well as all practice and qualifying sessions. Furthermore, the race itself will be devoid of ad breaks. Sky had previously been criticised for the timing of ad breaks when it had the rights previously.

Sky Sports managing director, Barney Francis, said:

“Formula One followers are hungry for more and we want to give them the ultimate experience. It’s not just every minute of every race but a channel devoted to Formula One.

“We can now tell the whole story of the season, from every grand prix, from start to finish. Formula One will get the full Sky Sports treatment. We have big plans for live shows and a rich line up of Formula One programmes; getting to the drivers, exploring the technology and lapping up the drama.”

If you’re a huge motoring racing fan and this appeals to you, you should also invest in a TV bracket before the channel launches. The HD experience is at its best when your TV is correctly positioned on the wall.